OCR English Literature Grade Boundaries

Important note

Grade boundaries change every year based on the difficulty of the papers and the performance of the whole cohort. The boundaries below are from recent exam series and are provided as a guide only. Your actual grade boundary may be slightly higher or lower. Always check the OCR website for the most up-to-date boundaries after results day.

The total number of marks across both papers is 160. Paper 1 (Exploring Modern and Literary Heritage Texts) is worth 80 marks and Paper 2 (Exploring Poetry and Shakespeare) is worth 80 marks. Each paper contributes 50% of the qualification. Your raw marks from both papers are combined to produce your overall grade. Below are the approximate boundaries from recent exam series:

Grade	June 2023	June 2024	June 2025	Approx. %
9	134	136	136	~85%
8	118	120	120	~75%
7	102	104	104	~65%
6	88	90	90	~56%
5	74	76	76	~47%
4	59	60	60	~38%
3	43	44	44	~28%
2	28	29	29	~18%
1	14	14	14	~9%

Note: These boundaries are approximate and based on publicly available OCR data. The “Approx. %” column shows roughly what percentage of the total 160 marks you need.